The Best History Quotes Ever

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. James A. Baldwin

I can’t change history, I don’t want to change history. I can only change the future. I’m working on that. Boris Becker

Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both. C. Wright Mills

Be honest. We have the science, the technology, and the wealth. What we don’t have is the will, and that’s not a reason that history will accept. Bono

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. B. C. Forbes

I believe that we must maintain pride in the knowledge that the actions we take, based on our own decisions and choices as individuals, link directly to the magnificent challenge of transforming human history. Daisaku Ikeda

I do not speak Hebrew, but I understand that it has no word for ‘history.’ The closest word for it is memory. David Miliband

Part 2. History Quotes That Are…

Inspirational History Quotes

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor. Elon Musk

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler. Franz Kafka

On the day when man told the story of his life to man, history was born. Alfred de Vigny

We are all tourists in history, and irony is what we win in wars. Anatole Broyard

Every renaissance comes to the world with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free. Anne Sullivan

History speaks to artists. It changes the artist’s thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images. Anselm Kiefer

What does the artist do? He draws connections. He ties the invisible threads between things. He dives into history, be it the history of mankind, the geological history of the Earth or the beginning and end of the manifest cosmos. Anselm Kiefer

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou

Whatever we do or fail to do will influence the course of history. Arthur Henderson

The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do. D. H. Lawrence

It had long come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Leonardo da Vinci

History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. E. L. Doctorow

Today is either the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning. Today we are making history. Eckhard Pfeiffer

Famous History Quotes

Thank you for coming. We’re gonna make some history together today. Steve Jobs (Apple founder introducing the iPhone at MacWorld 2007)

The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes. Adolf Hitler

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. Aristotle

After making a mistake or suffering a misfortune, the man of genius always gets back on his feet. Napoleon

Soldiers, if there is one among you who wants to kill his general, his Emperor, here I am. Napoleon

We learn from history that we don’t learn from history! Desmond Tutu

The Revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the Revolution! Albert Einstein

History is merely gossip. Oscar Wilde

Condemn me, it does not matter, history will absolve me. Fidel Castro

History shows that there are no invincible armies. Joseph Stalin

Revolutions are the locomotives of history. Karl Marx

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Karl Marx

History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals. Malcolm X

Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. Theodore Roosevelt

When I was a child my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll be the Pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. Pablo Picasso

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King Jr

We are not makers of history. We are made by history. Martin Luther King Jr Click to tweet

Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness. A. J. P. Taylor

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there. George Santayana

When the great history of trouble is written, my family will stand extremely high in the table of contents. Allan Sherman

History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools. Ambrose Bierce

I felt like a pickle stepping into history. Bill Clinton

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time. C. S. Lewis

Anyone who believes you can’t change history has never tried to write his memoirs. David Ben Gurion

People take the longest possible paths, digress to numerous dead ends, and make all kinds of mistakes. Then historians come along and write summaries of this messy, nonlinear process and make it appear like a simple, straight line. Dean Kamen

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like. E. L. Doctorow

Watch the History Channel if you want it literal and historically perfect. Emily Blunt

People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn’t. Christopher Paolini

Television and film are our libraries now. Our history books. David Strathairn

Throughout history, it took centuries for the habits of one culture to materially affect another. Now, that which becomes popular in one country can sweep through others within months. Dee Hock

For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness and comet personally. We created myths and spirits in an attempt to explain the patterns of nature. Ann Druyan

There runs a strange law through the length of human history – that men are continually tending to undervalue their environment, to undervalue their happiness, to undervalue themselves. Gilbert K. Chesterton

History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness. James Fenimore Cooper

If you have lived, take thankfully the past. John Dryden

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always. Mahatma Gandhi

All our experience with history should teach us, when we look back, how badly human wisdom is betrayed when it relies on itself. Martin Luther

It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions. Norman Mailer

Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life. Thich Nhat Hanh

History, we can confidently assert, is useful in the sense that art and music, poetry and flowers, religion and philosophy are useful. Without it — as with these — life would be poorer and meaner; without it we should be denied some of those intellectual and moral experiences which give meaning and richness to life. Surely it is no accident that the study of history has been the solace of many of the noblest minds of every generation. Henry Steele Commager

The becoming of man is the history of the exhaustion of his possibilities. Susan Sontag

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion. Thomas Carlyle

Optimists are usually wrong. But all the great change in history, positive change, was done by optimists. Thomas Friedman

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history. William Hazlitt

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history. George Orwell

The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What’s left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars. Bertolt Brecht

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge – myth is more potent than history – dreams are more powerful than facts – hope always triumphs over experience – laughter is the cure for grief – love is stronger than death. Robert Fulghum

Quotes About History, The Future, Hope

Fear not for the future, weep not for the past. Percy Bysshe Shelley Click to tweet

History shows you don’t know what the future brings. Rick Wagoner

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. Bar Refaeli

No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it. Alfred North Whitehead

Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out. Carl Sagan

To communicate the truths of history is an act of hope for the future. Daisaku Ikeda

We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces; nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history. Daisaku Ikeda

To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. Howard Zinn

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past. Edward Gibbon

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. George Bernard Shaw

The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events. Gerda Lerner

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Kurt Vonnegut

The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding. Will Durant

People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It’s not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past. Milan Kundera

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. Alex Haley

A generation which ignores history has no past – and no future. Robert A. Heinlein

You can’t live in history. You’ve got to build for the future. Ruud Gullit

Quotes About History And Change

You can’t be a full participant in our democracy if you don’t know our history. David McCullough

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different. Aldous Huxley

There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment – and you start to decline. Andy Grove

People say history is boring, and that is true because people are boring. We haven’t changed since time began. We’re still the same. We’ve obviously made some changes. Colin Hay

Humanity has experienced many revolutionary changes over the course of history: revolutions in agriculture, in science, industrial production, as well as numerous political revolutions. But these have all been limited to the external aspects of our individual and collective lives. Daisaku Ikeda

I truly believe that individuals can make a difference in society. Since periods of change such as the present one come so rarely in human history, it is up to each of us to make the best use of our time to help create a happier world. Dalai Lama

We live in an era with no historical precedents. History is no longer useful as a tool in helping us understand current changes. Doug Coupland

Debate and divergence of views can only enrich our history and culture. Ibrahim Babangida

What we do about history matters. The often repeated saying that those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them has a lot of truth in it. But what are ‘the lessons of history’? The very attempt at definition furnishes ground for new conflicts. History is not a recipe book; past events are never replicated in the present in quite the same way. Historical events are infinitely variable and their interpretations are a constantly shifting process. There are no certainties to be found in the past. Gerda Lerner

It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself. Gertrude Stein

Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. Gustave Flaubert

I have always been – I think any student of history almost inevitably is – a cheerful pessimist. Jacques Barzun

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man. Percy Bysshe Shelley

History repeats itself, which is good because most people don’t listen the first time.

History doesn’t repeat itself – at best it sometimes rhymes. Mark Twain

Every time history repeats itself the price goes up. Ronald Wright Click to tweet

History Sayings About Leadership, Politics

The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objectives; history records the successes of the latter, while oblivion is the reward of the former. Alfred A. Montapert

Throughout history, great leaders have known the power of humor. Allen Klein

Value people on their potential, not on their history. Bo Bennett

I love history because when you strip away the social and political aspects, it’s really just a bunch of fun stories. Duff Goldman

A political theory seeks to find from history the limits of the politically possible. Francis Parker Yockey

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing. Moliere

We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour. Douglas Hurd

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Milton Friedman

Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it. James A. Garfield

History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions. Ted Koppel

Religion is part of the human make-up. It’s also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy. Christopher Hitchens

God has never, in the history of mankind, allowed his name to go long offended. David Wilkerson

This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past. Agathon

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems. Max Lucado

I’m not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history. Richard Dawkins

History Sayings About Racism, Sexism, Equality, Poverty

All history is current; all injustice continues on some level, somewhere in the world. Alice Walker

Historically, unfortunately, race seems to be the major division that humanity has imposed on itself, a way of subdividing into smaller groups. David Mitchell

Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried. Henry Louis Gates

He’s right, X is not my real name, but if you study history you’ll find why no black man in the western hemisphere knows his real name. Some of his ancestors kidnapped our ancestors from Africa, and took us into the western hemisphere and sold us there. And our names were stripped from us and so today we don’t know who we really are. I am one of those who admit it and so I just put X up there to keep from wearing his name. Malcolm X

I’m not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself – then they get to say ‘See, you did it yourself.’ Alice Walker

Black History Month must be more than just a month of remembrance; it should be a tribute to our history and reminder of the work that lies in the months and years ahead. Marty Meehan

I do consider myself part of black history. Mary J. Blige

For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place. Maya Angelou

I would encourage us all, African Americans, Asians, Latinos, Whites, Native Americans to study history. I long for the time when all the human history is taught as one history. I am stronger because you are stronger. I am weaker if you are weak. So we are more alike than we are unlike. Maya Angelou

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own. Michelle Obama

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up. Henry Louis Gates

The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Quotes About History And Women

Well behaved women rarely make history. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Click to tweet

Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice. Leigh Hunt

The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I look forward to a time, in the not so distant future, when we no longer look forward to ‘firsts’ as milestones women have yet to achieve, but we look back on them as historic events that continue to teach and inspire. Dee Dee Myers

Generally speaking, historically in this country, the care of a child has been thought of as female business. Eddie Bernice Johnson

We are the only class in history that has been left to fight its battles alone, unaided by the ruling powers. White labor and the freed black men had their champions, but where are ours? Elizabeth Cady Stanton

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness. Erica Jong

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history. George Eliot

It is fair to assume that when women in the past have achieved even a second or third place in the ranks of genius they have shown far more native ability than men have needed to reach the same eminence. Not excused from the more general duties that constitute the cement of society, most women of talent have had but one hand free with which to work out their ideal conceptions. Anna Garlin Spencer

The history of woman is the history of the continued and universal oppression of one sex by the other. The emancipation of woman is her restoration to equal rights and privileges with man. Tennesse Claflin

The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself. Virginia Woolf

I think feminists are unaware of the tremendous extent of the role of women in history. Vivienne Westwood

Look at history; all the interesting women were deeply flawed. Linda Gray

Quotes About History, America, Americans

Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Barack could run, Barack ran so we all can fly. Unknown Click to tweet

The historical problem of the United States is to admit that it is a multiracial and multi-ethnic nation. Carlos Fuentes

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States. Carlos Fuentes

Let me tell you, never before in the history of this planet has anybody made the progress that African-Americans have made in a 30-year period, in spite of many black folks and white folks lying to one another. Dick Gregory

America’s growth historically has been fueled mostly by investment, education, productivity, innovation and immigration. The one thing that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with America’s growth rate is a brutal work schedule. Fareed Zakaria

America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization. Georges Clemenceau

American history contains much matter for pride and congratulation, and much matter for regret and humiliation. Herbert Croly

I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America you have to know about the Civil War. Ken Burns

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it. James A. Baldwin

America is one of the best examples, when you read its history, about extremism. Malcolm X

In other countries they have histories with revolutions and class movements. In America, people don’t like to think of themselves like being in a lower class. They all like to think of themselves as potential millionaires. Matt Taibbi

The American flag is the symbol of our freedom, national pride and history. Mike Fitzpatrick

For most of our history, no one dared to tell Americans, “you don’t build that”. Rand Paul

More quotes from Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers of the United States)

History Quotes About Mankind, Humanity, The World

Certain periods in history suddenly lift humanity to an observation point where a clear light falls upon a world previously dark. Anne Sullivan

I believe that with every bone in my body that all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank near, if not at the top, as history unfolds and we look back. Steve Jobs

History is formed by the people, those who have power and those without power. Each one of us makes history. Anselm Kiefer

One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history. Albert Schweitzer

The history of the world shows that peoples and societies do not have to pass through a fixed series of stages in the course of development. Aung San Suu Kyi

Our culture, language, history, and values are vital to uniting us as a nation. Bobby Jindal

Every era has its defining struggle and the fate of Africa is one of ours. It’s not the only one, but in the history books it’s easily going to make the top five, what we did or what we did not do. Bono

It’s an amazing thing to think that ours is the first generation in history that really can end extreme poverty, the kind that means a child dies for lack of food in its belly. Bono

Barcelona is a very old city in which you can feel the weight of history; it is haunted by history. You cannot walk around it without perceiving it. Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The haunting of history is ever present in Barcelona. I see cities as organisms, as living creatures. To me, Madrid is a man and Barcelona is a woman. And it’s a woman who’s extremely vain. Carlos Ruiz Zafon

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. Edward Gibbon

History in its broadest aspect is a record of man’s migrations from one environment to another. Ellsworth Huntington

I think violence, cynicism, brutality and fashion are the staples of our diet. I think in the grand history of story-telling, going back to people sitting around fires, the dark side of human nature has always been very important. Eric Stoltz

The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. Henry Ward Beecher

A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us. Lucy Larcom

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history. Mao Zedong

Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years. Mao Zedong

Democracy is but an experiment in the long history of the world. Mark McKinnon

The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal. Mark Twain

Quotes About History And War

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. Ambrose Bierce

The more the history of the World War and what led up to it is studied, the more clearly those tragic years become revealed as a vast collapse of civilization. Arthur Henderson

History is filled with tragic examples of wars that result from diplomatic impasse. Whether in our local communities or in international relations, the skillful use of our communicative capacities to negotiate and resolve differences is the first evidence of human wisdom. Daisaku Ikeda

I don’t want to go down in history as a man who allowed blood to be shed. Eduard Shevardnadze

The history of our civilization has been one of intermittent war. John Boyd Orr

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful. Leo Tolstoy

This war is not necessary. We are truly sleepwalking through history. Robert Byrd

In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war. Will Durant

Part 4. History Quotes For Students, Middle Schools, For The Classroom

Part 5. History Quotes from Presidents, Prime Ministers

No matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny. Barack Obama

The long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all and not just some. Barack Obama

Nowhere is it ordained that history moves in a straight line. Barack Obama

As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It’s not always a straight line. It’s not always a smooth path. Barack Obama

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. Dwight D. Eisenhower

The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice! Dwight D. Eisenhower

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us. George W. Bush

History is moving, and it will tend toward hope, or tend toward tragedy. George W. Bush

Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history – revisionist historians is what I like to call them. George W. Bush

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. George Washington

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know. Harry S. Truman

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. Harry S. Truman

Study men, not historians. Harry S. Truman

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides. Harry S. Truman

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker. Richard M. Nixon

Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy. Margaret Thatcher

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. Robert F. Kennedy

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. Ronald Reagan

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is. Thomas Jefferson

I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past. Thomas Jefferson Click to tweet

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. Thomas Jefferson

History is written by the victors. Winston Churchill

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. Winston Churchill

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft. Winston Churchill

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong. Winston Churchill

The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. Woodrow Wilson